Arsenal’s Raul Sanllehi hasn’t spoken to Jose Mourinho for years, according to reports coming out of the club.

Early on Sunday morning, a report coming from Duncan Castles suggested Arsenal had set their sights on bringing in Jose Mourinho to replace Unai Emery.

Castles claimed Mourinho had dined with Sanllehi last week, and he was considering a move for the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss to try and bring some identity to what is clearly a talented squad underperforming with Emery.

According to James Benge, Charles Watts and James Olley, however, this dinner between Mourinho and Sanllehi never took place.

The implication is that the manager senses an opportunity to take over at the Emirates, and he’s pushing the possibility from his side. From Arsenal’s point of view, all the talk attempts to distance the club from that possibility.

Emery’s Arsenal have won one of their last five league games, a 1-0 victory over Bournemouth. They’ve also been eliminated from the League Cup in that time, though the Europa League group stage is the one place things are still going well.

It’s getting harder and harder to see why the current head coach should even be allowed to see out the season, but it doesn’t seem like Mourinho will be the man to take over either way.